http://www.osnews.com/story/25631/PlayBook_OS_2_0_released Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2013, David Adams adam+nospam@osnews.com Sun, 19 May 2013 14:44:41 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com http://www.osnews.com/thread?507971 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507971 The hardware for these devices are Really nice. To be honest, of all the features im looking forward to its the browser improvements. It had more than a few quirks in it Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:39:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Adurbe) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507973 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507973 The positive publicity isn't easy to come by for them. Especially among US tech press predictions (wishes?) portraying RIM as a dead man walking in wake of West Coast ecosystem onslaught. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:15:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (dsmogor) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507975 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507975 I have a Playbook and love the hardware and OS. Haven't done the update yet but those who have are somewhat disappointed with it. They were expecting more changes. It is a bit difficult to get excited about new features that every other platform has had since day one. That said, it is still worth looking into if you are in the market for a 7" tablet. You might not find every app you want though. As for price, they can sometimes be found for as little as $150 for the 16 GB version. That is not a lot of storage but you can augment it with a 50 GB Box.net account.Edited 2012-02-21 12:35 UTC Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:35:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bolomkxxviii) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507976 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507976 Contacting companies like this directly about these things is pointless, I've learned that much. We're just not large enough .Edited 2012-02-21 12:39 UTC Tue, 21 Feb 2012 12:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom_Holwerda) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507977 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507977 http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/BlackBerry-PlayBook/Playbook... Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Adam S) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507989 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507989 Mine won't even update (just hangs at ~45%, just after the download is complete). I've cancelled the update and I'll try from my home Mac tonight.

Shame really - a colleague here also has a PlayBook and his update when fine. The differences were:

He has a 16GB PlayBook and it already had OS 2.0 beta on it.

Mine is 64GB and has OS 1.0.8

Hope RIM get back to you soon with a solution. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:14:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sparrowhawk) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507990 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507990 64GB 1.0.8 for me too. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:19:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Adam S) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?507991 http://www.osnews.com/thread?507991 Hope you don't mind, I've added an entry to your BB support forum thread to include this info, maybe it will help them identify the issue. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:31:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sparrowhawk) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508021 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508021 It worked for me when downloading directly onto the PlayBook rather than trying to use the Desktop software. Cold comfort for you I know. But at least we can discount the 64GB OS 1.08 combo as the cause.

Just been playing about with the new OS, and I must say I love what they've done. Makes me glad I bought a PlayBook - I only really wanted it as a cheap media player initially, but it has quickly replaced my iPad as my go-to device for browsing etc now too.

I just want Kindle and Skype and I'll be happy. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sparrowhawk) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508031 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508031 PlayBook should be reduced in price now, I paid £169 for mine. I've only had it a few weeks but the PlayBook OS 2.0 update is much appreciated. I don't know what took them so long though. The e-mail client is pretty sleek but seems to be missing support for IMAP folders. It works properly with push updates on Dovecot, which for some unknown reason K9 on Android doesn't (it used to work, but then stopped working after an update).

The system and browser feel a bit snappier now. They haven't fixed the awfully low framerate of the animation when you swipe down the browser toolbar. Still missing password remembering, which is a pain for sites like eBay which ask you to log in again every day.

They compressed the keyboard to use less screen space, but at the cost of making it much harder to type fast on. When you go to a password field in now shows a row of buttons on top of the keyboard. There doesn't seem to be an option to make the keys nice and big again. Sigh...

Still wishing for a decent Twitter client. Using the website is good enough for now. An eBay app would be nice too. Maybe they will bring the Android one over to App World.

At last they added a basic file manager. Before there was no way to delete music files without connecting to a PC. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Luke McCarthy) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508033 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508033 Try Blaq. It's a pretty impressive Twitter client. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:47:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Adam S) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508037 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508037 Actually, there have been several file managers capable of deleting music files (as well as any other type of file for that matter) for ages. A good free one is AirBrowser (the new File Manager seems to do render that one redundant though).

For more advanced options (eg access to the full filesystem, not just user account folders), I use one called "File Browser".

But it's good to see that RIM have listened and added their own (limited) one in with 2.0 Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:30:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Sparrowhawk) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508039 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508039 Thanks, I'll check it out. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:38:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Luke McCarthy) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508049 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508049 Does anyone know what, if any restrictions exist with regards to doing homebrew development for these?

I'm reading that the playbook 2 natively supports open source android packages? Can anyone confirm this? Are there any disadvantages to programing it this way?

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-app-player-blackberry-how-wil...

I'm also seeing other unofficial playbook sideloading utilities for windows. Is it necessary to jailbreak these devices or is homebrew app development/distribution supported out of the box? (I'm not sure if these sideload utilities are for convenience or are necessary to jailbreak)

http://www.berryreview.com/2012/02/14/free-vnpbutils-utility-lets-y...



The official website is too buggy to use and so I'm not actually able to view the specs, but I found some of the details I needed on wikipedia in case anyone else is looking...
http://us.blackberry.com/playbook-tablet/tablet-specs.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_PlayBook Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:37:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Alfman) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508051 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508051 There are no real restrictions. You can "sideload" (I hate that word) signed apps officially by using the development tools. No jailbreak necessary. It's actually the only way to test your development projects on an actual device.

There have been several open source ports of programs like ScummVM, SNES9x, Dosbox and others.

I don't know much about Android apps, but if the source code is available you should be able to make your own bar file. You need a developer account to sign your app, though. Tue, 21 Feb 2012 23:55:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (krealian) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508056 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508056 Also take a look at Blackbird. My preference for Twitter on the PB. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:43:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (grantpalin) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508062 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508062 Sorry to hear that. My 16GB updated first thing this morning - no problems! It's frustrating that some worked well, but some didn't. Overall, the look/feel is a little more polished. Still testing out apps. Bluetooth a little better, but still won't transfer files to my Ubuntu laptop. Room for improvement! Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:27:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (one_of_many) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508090 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508090 I updated to OS 2.0 OTA and had no problems at all. Everything is running well. Calendar and Contacts are great pieces of software. A2DP works very well. The Playbook is finally able to compete with other tablets. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:56:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (bolomkxxviii) Comments http://www.osnews.com/thread?508152 http://www.osnews.com/thread?508152 Updated my 16GB device over the air in about half an hour. No apparent issues! Still getting used to the new home screen layout, though it seems more sensible. I'm "meh" over the addition of email, contacts, and calendar - in the minority, I'm sure, but I already get email on my home system, my netbook, and my phone. I don't need yet another place for all this information. I'm more interested in seeing what Android apps become available. Also, the new remote control feature on the recent Bridge update is very nifty. Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:13:00 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (grantpalin) Comments